The 1961 Song "Moon River" -- Part 10

This series began in Part 1.
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In 1959 the movie A Summer Place was released. One significant factor in the movie's success was that the soundtrack song, Theme from a Summer Place, became quite popular. The soundtrack song was composed by Max Steiner and sounded like this:

Immediately the song was rearranged and recorded by the Percy Faith Orchestra. This rendition became a huge hit. The song remained #1 on the Billboard Top 100 list for nine consecutive weeks. Eventually Billboard ranked the recording as the #1 song for the entire year of 1960.

The Percy Faith rendition -- lusher than Steiner's soundtrack -- sounds like this:

The movie and its song reinforced each other commercially. The movie sold records, and the records sold movie tickets. I suppose that the movie's producers earned a portion of the record's royalties.

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I speculate that the 1959 movie A Summer Place inspired the producers of the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany's to invest a lot of money to commission Johnny Mercer to write the lyrics and Henry Mancini to compose the music for a hit song.

The investment paid off. The song "Moon River" became a factor in the commercial success of Breakfast at Tiffany's and has helped to maintain the movie's popularity for more than half a century.

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Most people who have watched Breakfast at Tiffany's assume that the song "Moon River" portrays the romantic relationship between the movie's two leading characters -- Holly Golightly and Paul Jarvak. They are the two drifters, the huckleberry friends, who will travel together, searching for the rainbow's end:

Moon River,
Wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style
Some day.

Oh, dream-maker,
You heart-breaker,
Wherever you're going,
I'm going your way.

Two drifters,
Off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world
To see.

We're after the same rainbow's end,
Waiting round the bend --
My huckleberry friend,
Moon River, and me

That popular interpretation of the lyrics is sensible with regard to the finished movie. After all, the movie ends with Holly and Paul falling in love, with marriage in at least his mind.

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However, I doubt that Mercer wrote his lyrics about the Holly's and Paul's relationship. He wrote his lyrics based on Truman Capote's novella, which ends with the two leading characters estranged from each other and parting ways forever. Mercer probably never read the movie's screenplay, and he wrote his lyrics long before the movie was finished.

As I wrote in this series' Part 1, Holly found the cat -- which is a key symbol in the Breakfast at Tiffany's story -- along a river. I believe that Mercer began writing his lyrics with the idea that Holly was singing about a river journey with the cat.

In other words, the lyrics expressed Holly's inability to establish real and lasting relations with other people. The song is not about her friendship with some other person, but rather about her social isolation and her solitude. She will find her happiness alone, accompanied only by a cat.

As Mercer polished his lyrics, however, he eventually shoved the cat out -- just as Holly had shoved the cat out of the taxi. The cat was replaced by the river itself.

Only one relic of the cat -- the "huckleberry friend" -- remains in the lyrics. When Mercer was a child, he had picked huckleberries along Moon River near his home town. He had found huckleberries along a river, just as Holly had found the cat along a river. In Mercer's mind, therefore, Holly's cat was her "huckleberry friend".

After Mercer shoved the cat out of his lyrics, the "huckleberry friend" ultimately became Moon River itself.

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According to the biography Skylark: The Life and Times of Johnny Mercer by Philip Furia, the "Moon River" lyrics were inspired by Mercer's childhood memories of picking huckleberries with his cousin along a river near his childhood home, I myself have not read this biography, but a person who has read it summarizes that part as follows.

Moon River's lyrics were written by Johnny Mercer, who grew up in Savannah, Georgia. The title and lyrics where inspired by a river that ran near his family's summer home, the Vernon River. However, Vernon is not a very lyrical name, so Johnny pulled out a map of the region and found a Moon River north of Savannah, in Bluffton, South Carolina.

Mercer wrote the lyrics based on his idyllic childhood in Savannah, summering on the coast and picking huckleberries with his cousin on the banks of the Vernon River ("my huckleberry friend"). He dreamed of his future life and how he would leave his home and river ("old dream maker, you heart breaker"), but regardless of how far he goes, he has the same goal as that river ("Wherever you're going, I'm goin' your way" and "We're after the same Rainbow's end").

He left that sweet, simple life for a life in show biz, living in New York and Hollywood - his cousin also left to pursue a career ("two drifters"). Upon his return to Savannah after his success, he drove across the bridge in his brand new Buick ("crossing you in style someday"), fulfilling his dream.

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Many people understand Mercer's expression "huckleberry friend" as alluding to Huckleberry Finn, the main character of Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. There, Huckleberry Finn escapes from his home and befriends an escaped Negro slave named Jim, and they travel together on a raft down the Mississippi River. They often travel at night, their path illuminated only by the moon shining down on the river.

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However, I still argue that Mercer began writing his lyrics while thinking of Holly finding the cat along the river and that he finished writing his lyrics with the idea that the "huckleberry friend" was Moon River -- the physical river -- itself. In other words, the "huckleberry friend" is neither Mercer's cousin nor Huckleberry friend.

Mercer addresses his song to Moon River. Whenever Mercer says or implies the word "you", he is addressing the physical river.

I'm crossing you in style ...

you dream-maker

you heart-breaker

wherever you're going

I'm going your way

When Mercer uses the word "we", he likewise is addressing the physical river.

We're after the same rainbow's end

Mercer even states explicitly that his huckleberry friend is Moon River.

My huckleberry friend,
Moon River, and me.

The above two lines comprise a list of two entities:

1) my huckleberry friend, also known as Moon River

2) me

The last two lines could be punctuated thus:

My huckleberry friend
(Moon River) and me.

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Now I explain the entire song as follows:

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Moon River,
Wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style
Some day.

Holly is standing on the river bank and looking across the river. She is young and poor now, but she intends to succeed in life and then will return here triumphantly. She will own an expensive boat or car and will be able to cross the river in style.

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Oh, dream-maker,
You heart-breaker,
Wherever you're going,
I'm going your way.

The flowing river inspires young Holly to travel away in order to find her success. Although her journey will lead to the fulfillment of her dreams, it also will involve much frustration and pain.

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Two drifters
Off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world
To see.

The two drifters are Holly and the river.

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We're after the same rainbow's end --
Waiting 'round the bend,
My huckleberry friend
(Moon River) and me.

On her journey, rain sometimes will fall on Holly and the river. The rainstorms are times of frustration and pain. However, each rainstorm will be followed by a period of happiness and hope -- by a rainbow ahead. Thus Holly will continue her journey and ultimately will find a pot of gold.

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Holly calls the river by its proper name -- Moon River -- and also by a nickname -- "my huckleberry friend".

The song is not a song about friendship or romance. Rather, it is a song about solitude and independent endeavor.

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Mercer was a scoundrel. He was an alcoholic and a womanizer. For example, he seduced Judy Garland when she was 19 years old and engaged to be married. Although he settled in Hollywood, he always had the personality of someone who might break up with his current romantic partner and leave town without notice to search for happiness elsewhere. He was a happy-go-lucky guy.

Many of his songs describe the pleasure of traveling alone from home after breaking up with a lover.

For example, here is an excerpt from his song "Blues In the Night (My Mama Done Tol' Me)":

Now the rain's a-fallin',
Hear the train's a-callin,

My mama done tol' me:
"Hear dat lonesome whistle
Blowin' 'cross the trestle."

My mama done tol' me:
"Ol' clickety-clack's a-echoin' back
Th' blues in the night"

The evenin' breeze'll start the trees to cryin'
And the moon'll hide its light
When you get the blues in
The night.

From Natchez to Mobile,
From Memphis to St. Joe,
Wherever the four winds blow
I been in some big towns
An' heard me some big talk,

But there is one thing I know:
A woman's a two-face,
A worrisome thing
Who'll leave ya to sing
The blues in the night

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Here is an excerpt from his song "Trav'lin' Light"

I'm trav'lin' light,
Because my man has gone,
And from now on
I'm trav'lin' light.

He said goodbye,
And took my heart away.
So from today
I'm trav'lin' light.

No one to see.
I'm free as the breeze.
No one but me
And my memories.

Some lucky night
He may come back again.
But until then
I'm trav'lin' light.

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Here is an excerpt from his song "I'm an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande", which is about his joy while driving a car.

I'm an old cowhand from the Rio Grande,
And I learned to ride 'fore I learned to stand.
I'm a riding fool who is up-to-date.
I know every trail in the Lone Star state,
'Cause I ride the range in a Ford V-8.
Yippie-yi-yo-ki-yay!

And I come to town just to hear the band.
I know all the songs that the cowboys know.
'Bout the big corral where the doggies go,
'Cause I learned them all on the radio.
Yippie-yi-yo-ki-yay!

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Here are excerpts from his song "On The Atchison Topeka And Santa Fe", about the excitement of riding on a train.

What a lovely trip!
I'm feeling so fresh and alive,
And I'm so glad to arrive!
It's all so grand!

Back in Ohio, where I come from,
I've done a lot of dreaming, and I've travelled some,
But I never thought I'd see the day
When I ever took a ride on the Santa Fe.

I would lean across my window sill
And hear the whistle echoin' across the hill.
Then I'd watch the lights till they fade away,
On The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.

I can't believe that anything could go so fast.
Then you pull that throttle, whistle blows
A-huffin' and a-puffin', and away she goes.
All aboard for California,
On The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.

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My favorite Mercer song is "That Old Black Magic".

That old black magic has me in its spell --
That old black magic that you weave so well.
Icy fingers up and down my spine --
The same old witchcraft when your eyes meet mine.

The same old tingle that I feel inside,
When that elevator starts its ride --
Down and down I go, round and round I go --
Like a leaf that's caught in the tide.

I should stay away, but what can I do?
I hear your name, and I'm aflame --
Aflame with such a burning desire
That only your kiss can put out the fire.

You are the lover that I've waited for,
The mate that fate had me created for.
And every time your lips meet mine,
Baby, down and down I go,

All around I go, in a spin --
Loving the spin that I'm in --
Under that old black magic
Called love.

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I will conclude this series in Part 11.